Thursday, November 22, 2012

Snarky List of Things I'm Thankful For

Facebook, Twitter, et all are all abuzz of things folks are thankful for. It seems like most of them are the garden variety So thankful for my friends, family, health... Hey, me too! I don't need a day to remind me of that. I'm grateful every day to be married to a my kick arse wife, been raised by awesome parents, have awesome family and equally incredible friends. Why not use this day to dig a little deeper and think of some other things you are really thankful for? C'mon, be honest. Even if it is selfish.

Here are mine:
- I'm thankful for the several folks who warned me with a healthy dose of smugness of how hard the 40-44 age group would be compared to the thirties. Yeah, screw you. Since turning 40 last May, I've placed second in my age group at a marathon and a half marathon. I also won my age group at the Scuffle 6-mile Trail race. I even outright won a 5K. That's more awards than I've probably ever won in the rest of my life combined. Thanks for giving me the incentive to kick some arse. I'm not done yet.

- Society jokes about how many folks don't like their in-laws. There's probably a good reason for that. I'm thankful that doesn't apply to me. I love my in-laws. They rock! They're here with us now for Thanksgiving and we're having a blast (and no, they'll probably never even see this).

- I'm thankful for my current streak of Boston Marathon qualifications. This April will be my third Boston. I'm already qualified for 2014. After years of having it stuck in my craw that I hadn't qualified and didn't think I'd ever really be good enough, I appreciate every single bit of it.

- I'm thankful that I have a job that I sincerely look forward to going to just about every single day. Teaching, guiding and mentoring high school students is hard work but even more fulfilling. I'll include coaching cross country with that as well.

There's more, but those are some of the bigger ones that come to mind right off the bat. Oh yeah, check out the apple pie I baked last night. Hopefully there'll be room for it after all of the turkey, stuffing, and everything else!